"Shanghai Triad" by Zhang Yimou won the Technical Grand Prize in Cannes in 1995. [File photo]

About the film:

The film is set in the criminal underworld of 1930s Shanghai and spans seven days. Tang Shuisheng has arrived in Shanghai to work for a Triad boss, also named Tang. He is taken to a warehouse where two rival groups of Triads carry out an opium deal that goes wrong, leaving one of the rival members dead. Shuisheng is then taken by his uncle to Tang's palatial home, where he is assigned to serve Xiao Jinbao, a cabaret singer and mistress of the boss. It soon becomes apparent that Jinbao is also having an affair with the boss's number two man, Song.